Missing White Female Alert

I was hoping that in a case as transparent as this one (hell, it didn't even happen in our own COUNTRY!), with the "damsel-in-distress" lost amidst the "dark continent" of Aruba, with the ridiculous amount of media attention and overzealous search and investigative efforts, that the public would finally see this trend for being as racist as it is, and thereby begin sharply criticizing the media.

It's been a bad year for the media, besides. Between this and the "flushing of the Koran" story that directly led to 19 deaths in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and I can't believe they're still getting away with this.

Anyway, it's also dawned on me that it's kinda stupid to use FLIR to track a dead person, assuming (in all likelihood) that she is, in fact, dead. I'd love to see the bill on this thing once it's all said and done, and then compare it to Aruba's last murder investigation.

be10dwn

I think class has more to do with it tha race. The rich always get the media attention over the middle and lower classes. Money buys a lot of things. And I think the parents are kind of rediculous in this thing, going to see the parents of the suspect and all. That made me sick.

F-16's are military jet aircraft that are designed to shoot other aircraft out of the sky. They cost about $45 million a pop. FLIR stands for "Forward-looking Infrared", which is what you see when you watch the black-and-white videos from police helicopters, showing the white silouhettes of fugitives against dark backgrounds. It's very advanced military technology.

It's disgusting overkill. The thing that makes their deployment to Aruba so *offensive* is the fact that they're basically using the equivalent of "a locomotive to chase down a moped on an island the size of a postage stamp." Basically, you know that if this were a native Aruban that were missing, or even an American minority tourist, the Dutch government (at the insistence of the U.S. and Holloway's slightly *too* pushy parents) would NEVER have sent both Royal Marines AND multi-million dollar military aircraft to search for them.

Apparently, the societal benefits of being white, blond-haired, blue-eyed, and wealthy, extend even into death . I've lost sympathy for the family at this point, as they're enjoying a level of UNPRECEDENTED support that would certainly NOT (and hasn't been) be provided for others.

I think it's a little outrageous that they're using F-16's to look for this girl. These jets could be used for something much more important...like protecting our borders. And while I agree that things would be different if the girl wasn't white...but I don't see how you can lose sympathy for the family. If someone in your family was missing, and you had this kind of support, you'd take it. Losing patience with the media in this case is one thing, but can you blame the family for wanting to use all means necessary to find her? If my daughter was missing, I would be pushy and would demand that everything necessary be done to find her...even if it's overkill

Harrahs

i agree with you, and have sympathy for the family. losing a child must be excrutiatingly painful to experience; it is natural that the family wants closure, and quickly.

that being said, i thought the senator of alabama's comments a bit arrogant. he said "It's unfathomable that the Aruban government would not take advantage of the full spectrum of resources, personnel and expertise of the F.B.I." in my opinion, he is in no position to dictate what the aruban government should do. if she was lost on key west, for example, would he take the same tone with our government? i think not.

edit: i may have misunderstood the article. it appears that the senator was responding to aruba's limiting of the fbi's role in the investigation.

F-16's are military jet aircraft that are designed to shoot other aircraft out of the sky. They cost about $45 million a pop. FLIR stands for "Forward-looking Infrared", which is what you see when you watch the black-and-white videos from police helicopters, showing the white silouhettes of fugitives against dark backgrounds. It's very advanced military technology.

It's disgusting overkill. The thing that makes their deployment to Aruba so *offensive* is the fact that they're basically using the equivalent of "a locomotive to chase down a moped on an island the size of a postage stamp." Basically, you know that if this were a native Aruban that were missing, or even an American minority tourist, the Dutch government (at the insistence of the U.S. and Holloway's slightly *too* pushy parents) would NEVER have sent both Royal Marines AND multi-million dollar military aircraft to search for them.

Apparently, the societal benefits of being white, blond-haired, blue-eyed, and wealthy, extend even into death . I've lost sympathy for the family at this point, as they're enjoying a level of UNPRECEDENTED support that would certainly NOT (and hasn't been) be provided for others.

I think it's a little outrageous that they're using F-16's to look for this girl. These jets could be used for something much more important...like protecting our borders. And while I agree that things would be different if the girl wasn't white...but I don't see how you can lose sympathy for the family. If someone in your family was missing, and you had this kind of support, you'd take it. Losing patience with the media in this case is one thing, but can you blame the family for wanting to use all means necessary to find her? If my daughter was missing, I would be pushy and would demand that everything necessary be done to find her...even if it's overkill

Harrahs

here is the economist's take on the holloway case. just in case the link doesnt work:

Murder and the media mob

Jul 7th 2005 From The Economist print edition

A tragedy in Aruba brings an invasionAP

ALL suspected murders are appalling tragedies for the families of the victims, but only a few become media circuses. To qualify, it helps if the victim is young, white, female and beautiful. That is the case with Natalee Holloway, an 18-year-old who vanished on May 30th on the last night of a high-school trip to the Caribbean island of Aruba. Spurred by Ms Holloway's battling mother, FBI investigators, private search teams and five American television crews have taken up residence on the island.

Aruban police held three young suspects for questioning (two have been released); briefly held, too, was the father of one of them, who is a judicial official. That prompted stories of an official cover-up. American radio stations have threatened a tourist boycott. That might devastate the island: it depends on tourists, three-quarters of whom (530,000 last year) are Americans.

What has been lost in much of the media storm is that Aruba, a self-governing unit of the Netherlands, may have something of a drug problem but is generally safe, prosperous and well-governed. In fact, it is much safer than the United States. In proportionate terms, it has less than half as many murders—and all seven cases since the start of 2003 have been solved. The American State Department reported in March that Aruba's judiciary “has a well-deserved reputation for integrity”.

On July 3rd, a 15-year-old blonde American was stabbed by her local boyfriend in an idyllic fishing village on Tobago, another Caribbean island. The case attracted less attention, perhaps because it lacked the terrible suspense of Ms Holloway's disappearance. The murder of two young black men from New York in the United States Virgin Islands on June 15th was barely noticed. Still less are the problems of Jamaica, which had 1,445 murders last year and whose gang wars spill over to New York.

Assuming Ms Holloway is indeed dead, it is to be hoped that Aruba can bring her killer(s) to justice. And the threatened boycott? Memories are short, and there are risks everywhere. Americans are unlikely to stay away.